1. The most important weighted voting system in the United States is the Electoral College (see Spotlight 11.1 on page 465). An organization, National Popular Vote (NPV), is attempting to replace the Electoral College with a system in which the president is elected by popular vote. One way to accomplish this would be to amend the U.S. Constitution. NPV has what might prove to be a simpler approach, lobbying state legislatures to pass a bill that pledges their state’s electoral votes to the ticket that receives the plurality of the popular vote. As of this writing, 11 states, with a total voting weight of 165 electoral votes, have passed this bill. The bill includes language that says that it will only take effect when the total voting weight of the states that have enacted it reaches 270, for then these states will make up a winning coalition.

What would happen if the states were to take effect for the next presidential election, without waiting for a winning coalition to form? The NPV website lists the states that have passed the NPV bill. Construct a new voting system in which one voter, NPV, represents all the states that have passed the NPV bill. These states have ceded their votes to NPV. The other voters are the states (or congressional districts in states with the District System) that have not passed the NPV bill, with their electors chosen as usual (see Suggested Websites on the next page). Example 9 on page 473 and Example 16 on page 483 show how a voting system can be altered if some voters combine to act together. Because the voting systems will be sizable, you will need to use the Power Index Calculator.